Scary Motel / Hotel Situations - It Can't Be legal

I shared the past week that we went on a trip with some teens to visit some national parks and other fun activities. I posted about the most amazing cabin we stayed in for the first two days. I LOVED that place. Here is a link about it. 
 
For a few days after the wonderful cabin, we stayed in a hotel. It is actually probably considered a motel.

My understanding is that a hotel has halls inside and a motel has halls outside. If I am wrong, then I don't know what makes the difference but either way, I have stayed at lots of places in my life and this rates in the bottom three. 

Once we stopped after a concert at a motel and the manager asked if we wanted to rent the room by the hour! I walked in and walked right back out and got our money back. It was so disgusting.

Once going to Disney, we booked over the phone from an advertisement about recently remodeled rooms. 

I couldn't believe when we arrived and you couldn't see the bottom of the pool and we were fairly sure the holes in the walls were bullet holes. We slept in our clothes and bagged them after morning showers worried about bed bugs. We checked out that morning after securing better accommodations. Truly scary! 
 
I walked into the current room and there was a round circle under the carpet that was lower than the rest of the floor. I tried to show it in a picture above but don't know that it shows. I then went into the bathroom and was disgusted that there is no sink with the toilet so every time you come out of the shower, to get out, you have to touch a poopy doorknob. 

Now I know that it is poopy because you can see by some of my other pictures that the room was VERY dirty. There was dirt in the corners. Cobwebs in the ceiling corners. The light in the shower / toilet room was full of cobwebs and dead bugs as was the vent. 

Every room had burnt out bulbs and different types of light bulbs in the sink vanity area. I took pictures of each group of roommates in their rooms and the bulb situation near the sink became a joke as they were so bad.   

The paint job was terrible and hadn't been done in some time as you can see they painted over the baseboard tiles but the dirt and grime overshadows the paint mess.

The bottom of the door in the toilet area was chipped away and there was water damage and mildew as the vent was full of dust and I'm sure didn't work well as the room was always moist. 
 
The tiles in the tub were moldy in the grout in places and the drain in the tub was bent and full of hair. The shower head was mineral covered and didn't work well and if someone used the toilet, you could smell it in the entire room as the vent didn't work and it lingered very longer in the rooms so taking a shower after someone used the toilet was horrible. 
 
As we did room checks, the little chain lock to one of the girls rooms was hanging by the tip of a screw and you could see that they had replaced it over and over. It was scary. The one in our room had been moved a few times as well and I don't think for a second it would have kept anyone out.
 
The door to the room was filthy even more so at the bottom so I am guessing animals have been in the room. However, just walking into the room, you get the sleazy motel feel which surprised me as it was a Days Inn which I have always had good experiences with in the past so it was rather disappointing. 

Even little things made the room just feel off. The lamp shade was turned around so you could see the seam line. That is something small but it still makes things seem "off" when entering. No overhead lighting, the lamps had dim yellowing bulbs as you can see by the yellow tint to many of the pictures. The fridge smelled moldy and was "off" as you had to turn it on so that is probably why mold grows. The blinds didn't keep the light out at night and I kept trying to block the light by putting things to hold the blinds in place. 
 
I didn't start getting freaked out until I saw how old their fire alarm was. It was extremely yellowed with age. When I was contacted by the law offices a few years back about smoke detectors, they informed me they are only good for about 5 - 7 years and some not even that much. 
 
They can get dust, paint, smoke etc in them and not even work if there were a fire but you don't know that until you have a fire so you should replace them every 10 years at least but you can see by the top picture, it isn't looking all that great. I should have checked it to see if it was even hooked up to power or had a valid battery if it wasn't hooked in.   

I laughed a sad laugh as I went to plug my straightener in near the bathroom sink. The outlet had blackened and they used paint to cover up the black on the outlet! Lets just say I was happy to leave the motel. 

I went to sit in the hot tub after the kids were in for the night and it smelled HORRIBLE like stinky boy feet! Like a men's locker room. I had three older brothers that wrestled and it smelled like their bad socks! 

The only nice thing at the place was the pool! Even the ice machines were out of order on some floors causing you to have to run around to find one. The "breakfast" that was included was horrible. No cooked anything but they didn't tell you that. The "omelettes" were microwaved frozen that you stick in yourself! They had some yogurt but it was all light with artificial sweeteners. They had toast, and the only fruit was apples. I was excited they had at least one thing I could eat and when I bit into it, I threw it out. Soggy and horrible. They had no employee to be seen ever. Not at breakfast, not around the pool etc. Only one person at the check out desk the entire two days we were there.

Truly, I am so grateful that we got a free vacation. I am grateful Princess Five can go on these trips and enjoy herself making new friends. I learned something about myself though, I do like clean things. I don't care if things are old as long as they are in good repair. I think I am just programed that way. With that, it is hard sometimes to "overlook" the negative things that detract from what otherwise could be a WONDERFUL experience. 

I think that is something I want to work on. Not seeing the details in everything can probably make things a bit easier but I feel that the little things being taken care of make it more enjoyable. 


I know that we attend places and if everything is in order, we notice nothing.Things just are. However, when things are not in order, we tend to notice and it can then make us focus on noticing other things that may not be in order. Once you start looking, you can find many things. I think it is just human nature. 

Paying a little bit more for a clean space is worth it to me. The saddest part to me is that with a little bit of attention, they could make it a nice place to stay. Sometimes saving a dollar on bulbs or turning off the refrigerators makes you lose customers in the end. Also, if you are paying someone to clean the room, you should train them on what "clean" is for most people, not what may be "clean" for them at home. The little things can add up to big things!